Exhibit:

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia

Preview of images

Gold Blocked Binding Elihu Vedder's dedication to his wife. Illustrations Quatrains 1-3 Illustrations Quatrains 17 &18 Handwritten Annotation: Florence Fernald, 1897
Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3
The Riverside Press + Houghton Mifflin & Co.

This COVE exhibit offers an articulation of the 1894 Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, with images to accompany each display case. There are five display cases that explore the history, offer discourse on the practice of gift books and orientalism in the Victorian era, examine a close reading of the poem and illustrations by Elihu Vedder, and creatively consider the possible owners of the edition. In conversation with Barbara Black’s On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums, and Bernadette Birzer’s "Exploring 19th Century Gift Books in a Special Collection: A Collection Analysis", this exhibit engages with discourse surrounding special collections and the historical practices of collecting in the Victorian period. This edition fits into this discourse as it is a part of the Dr. Sigurd H. Peterson Memorial Collection, gifted by Kenneth Teter, located at Oregon State University.

Images in this Exhibit

Description of My Edition
Gold Blocked Binding Elihu Vedder's dedication to his wife. Illustrations Quatrains 1-3 Illustrations Quatrains 17 &18 Handwritten Annotation: Florence Fernald, 1897

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, which was rendered in English verse by Edward FitzGerald, is interesting due to the detailed black and white illustrations by Elihu Vedder. This edition was published in 1894 under one of the more prominent publishers, Houghton Mifflin and Company. It was also published under FitzGerald’s 3rd edition of his translation. The edition has many attributes that make it stand out as a collectible variant of the Rubaiyat with its gold blocked binding on the front, dedication from Elihu Vedder to his wife, vast notes with ornamental...
Gift Books and Orientalism
Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

In On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums, Barbara Black explores the impact of Victorian imperialism on the translation by Edward FitzGerald of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám. She acknowledges the imperialist power of empire that the West orchestrated, suggesting that some gift books have appropriated the poem “by de-emphasizing its otherness and focusing instead on the familiarity…of FitzGerald’s translation,” (Black 61). One way in which the West did this was by creating the importance of owning an edition of the poem just as much as, if not more than, reading the...
Close Reading of Image + Text

On the page with stanzas 13-16 in Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, we get a detailed illustration by Elihu Vedder of a woman amongst a rose bush and vines, a skull, and a broken part of some statue-like sculpture. When examining this illustration, we can see how it works together with stanza 14 to contribute to the overarching theme of nature in the book as a whole. With the theme of nature, though, it may also be argued that the figure in the illustration and the woman speaker in the stanza may be commenting on a Mother Nature-like figure. 

The...
How This Edition Was Made
The Riverside Press + Houghton Mifflin & Co.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia was published by Houghton Mifflin & Company, and illustrated by Elihu Vedder. In 1832, Houghton Mifflin & Co. was established, and William Ticknor and his partner opened their business to book publishers and sellers. It was a place where writers and readers could converse; people interested in the book world came together to create, refine, and enjoy stories. After years of establishing themself as an in-demand publishing company, they officially appointed Sarah Wyman Whitman as the principal book designer in 1887. As...
Archival Speculation

Dearest friend,

I am writing you this letter to accompany the copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám that I have spoken to you about previously. This copy has served me well, and so now, as you leave Boston to venture west, I’d like to gift you it so that a piece of me may accompany you on your journey. 

As I’ve said time and time again, the illustrations by Elihu Vedder are what make this edition so tender to my heart. They are so incredibly detailed and intricate. I know that you appreciate an illustration, and so I hope that you enjoy them as much as I have. Often,...